Human History Was Changed Forever!

Twenty seconds later, another Songstress was cut down. Her posture was similar to the others, but still slightly different.

It was easy to imagine that the Songstress was actually a Mystery made up of thirteen distinct individuals. They all had identical abilities, forming a complete Level Four Mystery.

The Songstress used sound as a killing rule and could also compel people to make sounds. Walls and other obstacles did nothing to hinder them. And as intelligent Mysteries, they could move together as a group.

This made the Songstress a natural disaster to humanity, an enemy that was nearly impossible to fight.

In terms of destructive power, the Songstress might not measure up to certain Level Three Mysteries. But because they posed such a great threat to humanity, readily wiping out villages and towns, they were classified as Level Four.

The disaster level of a Mystery was always determined by the threat it posed to humanity.

Some Mysteries had enough power to easily destroy a city or trigger a massive earthquake. But because of various restrictions, they wouldn't directly use their abilities to threaten humanity. They could even be controlled, so they might be classified as Level Two or even Level One.

If they had to face such a Mystery head-on, even Artoria might not be able to handle it with her current strength.

So, for Artoria—or rather, for the Artoria controlled by Su Yun—the classifications humanity currently used to rank Mysteries weren't applicable.

The Songstress was exactly that kind of enemy: its abilities were an unavoidable, fatal threat to ordinary people, but to Artoria, it was merely a group of disgusting little monsters.

Twenty-six seconds later, another Songstress was killed.

Seventeen seconds later, she took down one more.

By then, this intelligent Mystery seemed to have learned what fear was. It actually began drawing its forces together, preparing to flee.

As its domain began to contract, the lights in the headquarters of the Supernatural Disaster Strategy Room lit up one by one.

But Su Yun wasn't about to let it get away. Otherwise, the two thousand points of Fantasy Power he'd spent would have gone to waste.

So Artoria, under Su Yun's control, resorted to a crude maneuver: she simply slammed her shoulder into a wall and smashed through it as easily as if it were made of tofu.

With a series of crashes, Artoria broke through seven walls in a row, burst out of the headquarters building, and caught up with the Songstress, who had gathered together and was preparing to flee.

The remaining seven were all here!

The instant they came face-to-face, the seven Songstress hovering in midair sang out in unison.

Their once-lovely voices blended together, resonating until they turned warped and shrill. The sound seemed to vibrate as it spread outward.

The environment wasn't damaged, but every living thing that heard the song—even tiny insects—began to tremble from within, then exploded.

Clearly, this was another way the Songstress could kill. It was no longer bound by its killing rule; it was a method its intelligent mind had devised.

Inside the distant headquarters building, many people were affected. They felt terrible and began coughing up blood.

But the distance was great, so none of them died on the spot.

Su Yun also saw Artoria's health bar slowly dropping. In the images he could see, her body showed signs of taking damage.

The Songstress's attacks could threaten Artoria too. The damage was slight, but it was real.

So Su Yun didn't hesitate any longer. Now that the Songstress had gathered in one place, he would finish them all.

The next moment, Su Yun activated another of Artoria's skills—Wind King's Hammer!

This was the attack mode of Artoria's Noble Phantasm, the Wind King's Barrier.

The Wind King's Barrier shrouded the blade by wrapping it in multiple layers of wind, bending the light around it. That was why the weapon in Artoria's hand was invisible.

The Wind King's Hammer gathered the power of the Wind King's Barrier and unleashed it all at once, creating a torrent of air that lashed out like thousands upon thousands of blades.

Artoria leaped up and shot toward the Songstress, who hovered more than twenty meters above the ground. Then she swung her weapon hard in a horizontal sweep.

The Wind King's Hammer became a terrifying storm of wind. Its magic-infused impact surged straight toward the Songstress.

In an instant, the fragile Songstress, strong in attack but weak in defense, were all torn to shreds in the howling storm.

At that moment, the Wind King's Barrier temporarily faded, revealing the weapon Artoria held.

It was a knight's greatsword, forged from some unknown material. Its blade shimmered with a golden light and was surrounded by faint, particle-like effects. It radiated sanctity and grandeur.

But that brilliance lasted less than three seconds before fading away.

The Wind King's Barrier gathered around the blade again, concealing the Holy Sword.

By then, Artoria had landed. She stood on the ground, sword in one hand, looking every bit the gallant hero in a classic dramatic pose.

In truth, Su Yun had simply stopped controlling Artoria. He was staring intently at the battle results on the right side of the screen.

The mission showed that the progress for eliminating the Mystery, the Songstress, had reached 13/13, and displayed the word "Complete."

Normally, this was where the battle results would appear.

In fact, Su Yun had designed a battle results screen. Defeating a Mystery ought to bring a reward, after all, and his design absorbed the Mystery's power as it was eliminated, converting it into Fantasy Power.

But although he'd added this feature, he didn't know whether it would actually work. Mysteries were too mysterious. They were foreign entities, not something produced by the planet itself. Su Yun's system was, in essence, a cheat powered by the planet itself. He had no idea whether it would work on outsiders.

So, as he eliminated a Mystery for the first time, Su Yun was a little nervous. If the battle results feature he'd designed didn't work, he'd have to scrap many of his plans.

A few seconds later, the battle results appeared—or rather, the process of absorbing and converting the Mystery's energy finished. The result: 382 points of Fantasy Power.

Seeing this, Su Yun raised his right hand and clenched his fist hard. He could probably absorb only a fifth of the Mystery's energy, but it had worked.

The system he'd created really could absorb some of the Mystery energy left behind when a Mystery was eliminated.

The rest dissipated into the world, leaving nothing behind. This was the world's self-repair function: once the Mysteries lost their vessels, the world erased them.

This was a self-protection mechanism the World Consciousness had established while asleep. Su Yun couldn't change it, and didn't want to. If Mystery energy persisted, its source would absorb it again.

That would be tantamount to helping the enemy.

Su Yun then turned his gaze to Artoria on the screen. She still had more than two hundred seconds left of her Fantasy Manifestation.

He couldn't let that go to waste.

"It's a little early, but I was going to give this to you anyway, Lia. Take it! This power—and this module—truly belong to you!"

Su Yun immediately ended his control and used the system to convert the remaining power, changing its form.

He even spent another 182 points of Fantasy Power to complete the transformation.

In that instant, white light burst from Artoria. Like a magical girl ending her transformation, she returned to her original clothes, and the invisible sword in her hand disappeared.

At the same time, she regained control of her body. Her normal vision returned, leaving her in a daze.

"Huh? Huh, huh? Did I... change back?"

She was confused—completely baffled.

But Artoria had no time to think about it, because the Strategy Room personnel came running out just then. Every one of them looked wildly excited and delighted. Their eyes were filled with admiration, even awe.

They had witnessed Artoria achieve the greatest miracle in humanity's history of encountering Mysteries: with her own strength alone, she had eliminated a Level Four Mystery!

From that night onward, the history of humanity's fight against Mysteries was rewritten!

It also marked the beginning of a new era: humanity had finally gained the supernatural powers that had previously existed only in stories!